La Cañada Unified students fend off Mathzilla in districtwide competition
Question: What do you get when you take students naturally gifted in the art of mathematics, add in fun math-focused quizzes, subtract the pressures of homework and grades, multiply by 200 and divide by one championship award?
Answer: Mathzilla 3.0.
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For the third year in a row, La Cañada Unified students in grades 4 through 6 competed in the annual districtwide Mathzilla competition to determine whose math skills reign supreme. Nearly 200 students feeling up to the challenge met at Paradise Canyon Elementary School on the evening of March 10 to participate in the competition.
About a week beforehand, students participated in an individual speed round by taking a 15-minute examination. Then, the event itself began with a 30-minute individual event and a team relay in which participants were broken into teams of four.
While students’ scores were calculated and pizza was divvied up among competitors, attendees participated in a speed competition to see who could solve a Rubik’s Cube 3-D puzzle in the least amount of time.
Ultimately, students from La Cañada Elementary School won the day’s coveted Mathzilla School Championship award and were given a school trophy as a sign of their victory.
Hilary Gregg, La Cañada Unified’s elementary schools GATE coordinator, said the annual competition is a big draw for math lovers who aren’t afraid to show their work.
“It was an exciting evening and we are thrilled to see the enthusiasm toward math in our upper elementary-grade students,” she said in an email interview afterward.
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Sara Cardine, sara.cardine@latimes.com
Twitter: @SaraCardine
